TopShape Fitness Studio

Fitness and nutrition blog from TopShape Fitness Studio. We will try to write an article monthly based on current subject matter pertaining to nutrition,fitness coaching, clinical exercise and strength and conditioning training.

If I am 150 lbs and my daily energy
expenditure is 1800 calories per day (because this is what the online
calculator told me) and I eat 1800 calories per day, than I will stay the same
weight. If I eat less than 1800 calories
I will lose weight. Sounds simple and
there is a lot of good science to back up this philosophy.

There is only one problem.
If never seems to work in real life with most people. The reason is that true energy balance needs
an increase in activity and an increase in proper micronutrients to really
work. In most cases, I have found that
people living by this method are not exercising regularly and not eating
properly. I have found that they are eating under their daily resting metabolic
rate (RMR) and are not losing, but gaining fat.
What they do lose in the very short term is muscle and water, with very
little coming from fat stores.

So why is this happening?

It happens for a number of reasons. The most likely being a
low RMR (resting metabolic rate), which in turn makes you a thrifty calorie
burner and great at storing fat. Your
pro-hormone levels are not activating properly.
Maybe you are insulin sensitive, have high cortisol, thyroid is high or
low, growth hormone is low or testosterone or estrogen is too low or too
high. Perhaps you continually looked for
a quick fix to your fitness challenge and tried 1 or more of the many fad diets
that are advertised. Any of these reasons
could explain the challenges most people face in reaching there fitness goals.

Let me tell you another little secret. You know those magazine pictures that show
these dramatic transformations from fat and frumpy to lean hard body…you know
the ones with the house wife who now has abs. Firstly some are fake, surprise.
But some are real. I have even met a few of these individuals, and can vouch
for there ability to change and keep it off.
In every case, 100% those men or women increased daily activity, lifting
weights and doing cardio. They also increased daily calorie consumption. In most cases they doubled or even tripled
calorie consumption and used supplements.
They also ate very differently than there old habitual way of eating.
Why because I told them to. Many didn’t believe me at first.

Nutrient partitioning

Nutrient partitioning refers to how many calories are
directed into muscular stores verses how many calories are directed into fat
stores when you consume food.

Well what the hell does that mean? Here is a simple explanation. Everybody wants
to put on muscle while losing fat. There is only 1 problem. This is very
difficult. This is because of nutrient partitioning thresholds. You may have a fat gain threshold of 2000 cal
a day. If you eat more than 2000 cal per day you tend to gain fat stores. You want to gain muscle to, but you have a
muscle threshold of 2200 calories per day.
You need to eat at least 2200 cal to gain any substantial muscle. So to gain muscle you always gain some fat as
well. Very frustrating!

Here’s where I give you the good news. You can lower the muscle gain threshold. I would say 90% of trainers don’t have any
idea how to do this. But yet again most
trainers can’t teach someone to squat properly, let alone construct a proper
program. Sorry… you want the secret of how
to change the muscle to fat ratio! First
your 2000 cal (number of calories depends on client evaluation) must be more
nutrient rich. So you see a calorie just isn’t a calorie.

The ratio of protein to carbs to fats has to be
balanced. If I told you that a person eating
600 calories of protein, 800 calories of carbs (mostly sugars) and 600 calories
of fats (mostly of it being trans and hydrogenated fats) would not see the
results that a person eating 1000 calories of lean protein sources, 500
calories from carbs (mostly fruits and veggies and fibre rich grains) and 500
calories from fats (the majority from omega 3 fish oil and an equal division on
saturated and polyunsaturated omega 6 and 9 fats), would you believe me?

Here are some food examples.

Fish

Eggs

Chicken breasts

Lean red meat

Cottage cheese

Milk protein isolates

Whey protein isolates

Green vegetables

Salads

Legumes

Low glycemic index fruits

Oatmeal

Sweet potatoes

Mixed grain bread

Fish oil, flax oil, olive oil

Mixed nuts

These foods should be on your grocery list each week. If you
are vegetarian then you will need to supplement your protein and consume
fermented soy meat alternatives.

The real key is figuring out your real energy output. Your
calories in and your true calories out. Your calories out will consist of your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), the
calories driven by your metabolism at rest (your daily activities) and the
amount burned when exercising daily, Cost
of Exercise. Once we have a good grasp of these numbers the idea is to be
just shy of that daily total. There are various online calculators that ca help
figure this out. Try to stay within 200 calories of this number.

Now you may say. Hey! I’m going to eat 600 calories under my
target and loose more weight! I have a lot of clients that secretly try this. I
catch them in about when performance drops and so does muscle mass. This is
because their metabolic rate drops due to a loss of anabolism and they become
catabolic flabby muscle wasters like before they started. You cannot cheat your
way to success when it comes to body transformations and this is what most of
you really desire when you look in the mirror. Change…not just Less.

Your goal is to be Anabolic. This is the key to a healthier
you. Diet programs make you catabolic, muscle wasting, flabby douches. Get of
the spin cycle; get out of the pool classes and Zumba just for fun. Hire an
experienced trainer who tests extensively and start grunting.

Monday, June 27, 2016

The Rotator Cuff is a group of muscles and
tendon tie-ins that are crucial for the proper functioning of the shoulder
joint. These muscles sit around the scapula and shoulder joint. The muscles can
be remembered by the acronym SITS. Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, teres
major/teres minor and subscapularis. (see fig.)Collectively, these muscles form a web of stability and are individually
responsible for all the motions of the shoulder, our most mobile joint. The
figure does not show the subscapularis which is the only rotator muscle located
on the interior of the shoulder blade. It is responsible for internal rotation
and adduction.It is activated in the
gym with exercises such as cable crossover and bench.Not what I would classify as an underutilized
muscle in the gym.

Dysfunction of the glenohumeral joint and more specifically the cavity separating the
humerus (upper arm bone) and the scapula (shoulder blade) is the area that I
will concentrate on in this article. The
most common problem I see is impingement of the shoulder joint causing inflammation or injury to the bursa and supraspinatus muscle. This is commonly
an overuse injury caused by poor posture, muscular imbalances, general muscular
weakness and over compensation of larger muscles of the anterior delt, pecs, upper
back and cervical to thoracic spine area.

Other shoulder problems usually are a result of an
injury that someone can point to as the cause of their acute pain. Impingement
syndrome is usually a chronic problem that last months or even more than a
year. It does not go away with rest. It must be corrected through clinical
exercises and treatment plans.

By the time I see clients at TopShape Fitness
Studio with shoulder issues, they can be quite severe. Clients have usually
already been to physio more than once and have even had cortisone shots.They may even have “Frozen Shoulder” (inability
to move shoulder through any significant range of motion) and are in severe
discomfort, dysfunction and stress.

Here is the good news. It can be fixed. In
fact, a significant result can be shown within 2 weeks and full recovery in as
little as 6 weeks. If you follow the plan!

Rotator Rehab Mistakes:

Common
mistakes made by sufferers of rotator cuff, sprains, tears, tendonitis or
bursitis make are to rest and wait for symptoms to subside. Unfortunately when clients go to their
family GP and complain that it hurts to do a certain movement, the doctor
may advise not to move it. If you don’t move your shoulder through its
proper range of motion you will lose that range of motion. Range of motion
(ROM) rehab exercises are critical. The following videos show common range
of motion warm-ups.

Here are some acute phase rehab exercises:

(pendulum warmups)

(warmup stick stretches)

Icing will stop the healing process momentarily. It feels good and
it may help dull the pain but does not help in healing in any way. In fact,
by stopping the inflammation process you are stopping the constant supply
of blood that carries inflammatory cells to the injured area. This is
critical in the healing process. You are also stopping the production of
growth hormone and interrupting the lymphatic drainage process. The 1 way
system that flushes swelling from the affected area. This is counterproductive.
Please refer to our blog article on Icing for more information. At
TopShape we haven’t used ice in rehabbing our athletes or regular clients
since 2008. Since that time I have noticed a significant improvement in
recoveries of various injuries.

Another
mistake is to take non-steroid anti-inflammatory, NSAIDs, like advil. NSAIDs
not only interfere with the essential process of inflammation, it interferes
with the neurological training adaptation that needs to happen when
healing during clinical exercise rehab.

Lift
through it. Muscular imbalance plays a large roll. An over dominance of anterior musculature,
such as pecs and anterior delts and the lack of flexibility in these
groups helped lead to the injury. To continue these movements in improper
form is insanity. Many lifters even demonstrate incorrect form in their
pull-ups, recruiting the pecs rather than the proper scapular movement.
This is a main contributor to why women have such a difficult time with
pull-ups. Not strength, but function.

So what’s the plan? First get a proper
diagnosis. Here at the studio I do an injury movement test to confirm a doctor’s
or physio’s diagnosis. Having a defined diagnosis, speeds up and helps me define
an individualized treatment plan for the exact injury. This means you don’t
have to do a lengthy generalized program.

After the warm-up exercises like the ones
above, we perform scapular stabilization exercises.

Here
are some exercises for the more chronic and dysfunction correction warm-ups

(scapular retraction) and

(lying dynaband extension)

Lastly some favorite posture correcting
exercises. These are general correction exercises for the majority of
dysfunction I see.If you are a regular
weight lifter than some shoulder accessory work is needed in your program. Add
some of these to help balance anterior and posterior chain exercise

(rotator strengthening)

(scaptions)

(overhead scapular retractions)

Try this program if you are suffering from shoulder dysfunction. It has helped me build functionally strong shoulders after years of dysfunction.

Friday, June 17, 2016

My experience with thousands of clients over 20 years have taught me that there is really only 1 way to teach women to do proper pull-ups. The gravitron or other unweighting machines don't work. Using bands don't work. The only 2 things that work are, doing pullups and using exercises to strengthen the contributing muscles. Your traps, lats, rhomboids, serratus, rotators, biceps, delts and core have to be supper strong.

Follow this progression, adding these movements to your regular program and you will be well on your way to using your upper body to overcome your body weight.The quest for the perfect female pull-up.Phase 1: passive hanging holds, allow proper activation of thoracic spin as well as much needed flexibility in this area. 4 weeks

Phase 2: Active hanging scapular retractions. This is where you really get to strengthen and activate rotator cuff muscles as well as traps and rhomboids. 4 weeks

Phase 3: chin-up holds. Here is where you really get to test muscular endurance as well as build strength in the biceps, shoulder and core. You guessed it, 4 weeks.

Give this progression a try and up the weight on associated muscle groups during your regular training. Please follow our blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel to help us out.
Thanks

I just finished my annual Ottawa Race Weekend 10K this past
weekend. Each year I get a little bit
more disillusioned with the running world. There is more training information
out there than ever before. Shoes and clothing technology, as well as electronic
gear for runners of all sorts. So why are there still so many horribly unfit
runners out there?

Of course I know the answer and I’ll share it with you. Instead of getting real technical with the bio-mechanics
of running, I think part of the blame falls to running culture. Each year at
the trade show booths at run weekend I see the same theme. When I walked in the
past few years I am bombarded with ads and displays for circuit conditioning
classes, yoga for runners, compression everything and vegan food and
supplements of every type imaginable. It
dawned on me that in almost every sport I can think of, training science is
moving its athletes forward. Some took a long time to get going but it is
generally happening. Running culture is moving backwards.

I think many people run for the enjoyment it brings. However
there are many who are running for the wrong reasons. They run for the hope of
fat loss. They run to fight the process of aging. They run to stay strong. They
run for their health. If you are running for any of these reasons other than
enjoyment then you are making a mistake.
Read any article by the worlds most renowned anti-aging doctors and you
will find if you want to age yourself fastest, follow a vegan diet and run long
distances. If you are running for your health, then let’s do it the right way.

During my 10k run and watching some of the other races on
the weekend, I witnessed a lot of people that did not look like they were
enjoying themselves. I saw knee and hip alignments that looked as if they would
collapse at any moment. I saw people
that didn’t seem to have any core strength at all. I saw people with an
imbalance in musculature and overly tight joints with limited mobility. I saw
people who did not have their heart rates under any type of control and looked
to the point of exhaustion. Something
has got to change.

If you want to run, then train your body to be an
anti-runner. By this, I mean do the training off the road that will keep you on
the road and keep your tissue and joint health optimal. Especially for those 35 and older.

You need to strength train. Not cardio condition or yoga
strength or body pump or circuit classes with light weights or even running on
a treadmill in the water. Really strength train to build real muscle mass and
burn real fat. Many runners fall into that "skinny fat" category. They have very
poor structural posture, poor muscle tone and high body fat percentages. Resistance training at least 3 X per week with a minimum 60% of your 1 RM will
force your body to adapt to build muscle and strengthen connective tissues. What
am I talking about? See a professional
at TopShape Fitness or follow my blog and Facebook.

For now here are some great exercises for glute strength. Try
these 2x per week Glute and core
strength are essential for a strong running posture.

You need to perform
deep tissue work and range of motion work for structural imbalances and poor
flexibility in the hip, back, knee and ankle joints. Your problem is you are
WEAK.

Using barefoot shoes, minimalist shoes, support soles,
rockers and compression socks is not your issue. Shoe technology and athletic
wear has come a long way since 1981. What has also come a long way is the
increase in running injuries. Over 85% of runners will suffer from a joint or
connective tissue injury. With so much
information, why? It is because most North American’s WOG. They walk jog. It’s
the same comparison I make to my clients all the time. Put a picture of a
sprinter and a marathoner beside each other and find me the person who wants to
look like the marathoner. It is all
bio-mechanics. Stop jogging and learn to sprint slower.

Shorten the stride and up cadence. Studies have shown that
cadences of 85-90 steps/minute can reduce injury. See the photos left. Notice the runner on the left with the longer
stride length. Her heel strikes the ground first way in front of her body. This
stops her momentum dead and reverses that kinetic energy right back towards the
knee. She has to expend a lot of energy to overcome and push forward on each
step. This repetitive joint pounding will eventually lead to dysfunction.

Courtesy Skye Pellerin 2016

Notice our young runner on the right. Kids are my favorite
because they haven’t been taught to run improperly. They run naturally in a
sprinters form… correctly. She will spend more time in the air and less on the
ground. Her foot strikes in line with the body or even slightly behind as her
body lean will be forward at the moment of strike. She strikes the ground with
the ball of the foot not her heel. Her energy is pushed out the back with her
high heel kick and is returned through her hip hinging motion allowing the knee
to return in front high so that her foot can strike under her again. Stop
WOGGING, jogging, almost walking. You spend too much time on the hard surfaces
in a poor posture. Run like you did as a kid.

Constantly focus on
joint mobilization. Don’t just get out and start running. Perform dynamic range of motion exercises before each run. See my link to my you tube channel here.

Mobilize your IT band after runs. The IT band commonly collects and strains the outside of the knee and puts pressure on the lateral
tendon. This forces the knee to strike the ground in a dysfunctional pattern.
It is one of the leading causes to runners becoming injured. Other problems
follow soon after. Foam rolling followed by static stretching after a run will
make your knees and hips bullet proof.

“I also now consider strict vegan diets to be
potentially deficient for teenagers who burn a lot of calories each day and
whose growing bones and bodies still require a full spectrum of nutrients. This
may be true for adults, as well, if they follow a vegan diet strictly for a
year or two or more.” Chet Day

Lastly, it would take too long to get into why vegan diets
are not healthier. I respect people who eat this way for ethical reasons. My
closest run partner is vegan and I have many vegan clients. Simply, if your
goal is to get stronger and leaner and maintain an optimal body fat percentage,
then eating a complete protein source as well as eating enough saturated fat is
essential. Vegan protein is not a complete protein source.

Dr. Donaldson includes a list of all major sources of B12 in
a vegan diet and observes, "We see then that dietary vegan sources of
vitamin B12 are very sparse since plant foods do not contain vitamin B12 in
appreciable amounts." He concludes that all vegans must take a B12
supplement.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

My Invictus Experience

As many of you know I was a coach
for Team Canada in rowing and power-lifting for the 2016 Invictus Games in
Orlando Florida. This was a life changing experience for me, and I was truly inspired
by the men and women I met. I made many new friends and hope to see them all
again in Toronto in 2017!

My adventure began about 8 months ago with a call form executive
director of “Soldier On” Greg Lagace. He asked if I would be interested in
helping out with the team. As an ex-national rower and trainer of a Paralympic
power-lifter I had some experience in those sports. I accepted the job on a volunteer basis.

I began by designing a rowing program to get the rowers (many
of which had never rowed and especially not in a competition) some base cardio
training. Moderate duration basic rows were used to develop base cardio and to
increase capillaries attached to the muscle fibers. For power-lifters, our power coach at TopShape
Alex and I came up with a bench press program for them to follow. Their numbers
immediately began to climb!

The row program then moved to lactic tolerance (anyone who
has ever rowed competitively knows this is what it’s all about). All the
athletes were monitored online until we would meet at our training camp! Weekly
milestones were given and athlete feedback was crucial in making sure they were
not over training.

In January we had the first of 2 training camps in Toronto
and we did some testing to see where everyone was. All the rowers were doing
very well and putting up decent numbers. The power-lifters were also doing well.

By our second camp in March the team had come together and
all the numbers were very good! The biggest issue I had to deal with was many
of the athletes were in multiple sports and were training for each so burnout
and injuries were a huge factor! Most were managed very well.

Once we left for Orlando everyone was very confident that we
would do well at the games and we did!

My crew won 8 rowing medals and 2 of 3 power-lifting medals!
29 athletes came home with 22 medals so needless to say Team Canada did us
proud. Although the premise of the games
were not focused on medals but it was on individual achievement. These heroes give
everyone around the world inspiration.

The added bonus of 22 medals for Canada
is a huge perk!

To Team Canada I am the most proud of had the opportunity to
have met all of you, and I am a better person for it!

PJM

Invictus

Out of the night that
covers me,Black as
the Pit from pole to pole,I thank
whatever gods may beFor my
unconquerable soul.

In the
fell clutch of circumstanceI have
not winced nor cried aloud.Under the
bludgeonings of chanceMy head
is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond
this place of wrath and tearsLooms but
the Horror of the shade,And yet
the menace of the yearsFinds,
and shall find, me unafraid.

It
matters not how strait the gate,How
charged with punishments the scroll.I am the
master of my fate:I am the
captain of my soul.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Every year, many people with good intentions
make a New Year’s resolution. For many it’s to get fit and start going to the
gym. Three months is the average time most will stick to that promise! In fact
while you are reading this article most people have already quit on this goal.

There are fundamental differences between people
who go to the gym day after day, week after week and someone who goes for three
months and quits.

When asked what is the most difficult thing
about getting to the gym most said finding the time. Most people have time;
they just can’t manage it properly.
When we work on fitness plans for some of the country’s busiest executives, We
first dissect their home time. Obviously, if you’re at work you can’t be
working out. The same rule applies for sleeping. So we work 8hrs, we sleep
8hrs, that’s 16 hrs. This leaves you 9 hrs. Some people work more than 8 hours
a day. Here is where good time management skills and priorities come into play.
If you are not ready to make fitness one of your top priorities getting in
shape will never happen.

If you go home after work, eat dinner and
then sit on the couch watching TV for three hours before bed guess what? You will
never get into shape. All you need is one hour out of your day three days a
week. If over the course of a week, you work 40 hrs, sleep an average of 40 hrs,
and all the other essentials take about 28 hrs, this is 108 hrs. One hundred
and eight hours to wash, get dressed, eat, work and sleep everything else is a
luxury. A week consists of 168 hours that leaves about 60 hours for non
essential stuff. Of course there are other factors involved such as; different
jobs take more of your spare time. We have a client that actually built a gym
in his office building just for himself to get into shape. The idea is even if
you end up with 15 hours left over you should still be able to set aside 3-5
for fitness that’s it.

Next, you
need to make fitness a habit, get it into your schedule, and stick to it.

Plan your exercise as you plan your day.
Try to add it in at the same time everyday. Eventually it becomes a normal part
of your routine. Once it’s a habit if you miss a session you feel like your day
is not complete. That is the feeling you need to develop in order to continue on
the plan.

Choose
realistic goals, this means that if you have never
ran a marathon then don’t expect that by going to the gym two days week that in
three months you’ll be running 10 km.

Be real; don’t set yourself up for failure.
If you need to lose weight then choose a goal you can live with without
changing your whole lifestyle. Desperate measures are for desperate people. If
you need to lose 20 lbs; of fat or more than you realistically need to schedule
5-7 hours of activity per week. That includes all forms of exercise, not just
gym training.

Stay
focused. Write your goals down, and place them in spots
where you can see them often. Everyone has a calendar at work or at home write
a step by step day by day plan out on it. Write down things like, down two
pounds, 10 more to go.

Have an end date in mind. It should look something
like this, end goal date June 1st 2016 goal down 4 inches up 4
pounds of muscle and drop 4% body fat.

Track your goals every week this will help
you stay focused and keep your program on track.

Get
the help of an expert. Many people fail to adhere
to a program due to boredom. This is often due to two major factors. One, lack
of knowledge is a major problem. If you’re just guessing at what it is you
should be doing then it will take forever to attain a goal. People who exercise
for months without attaining a goal will often quit, they have no motivation to
continue because they see no change. Fitness Consultants make it their business
to know what you need. This will make your efforts more efficient and changes
will occur much faster. If you see changes you will be more incline to sticking
with your routine.

Second, lack of variety, remember the old
adage variety is the spice of life. Nothing could be truer when it comes to
exercise. The average person picks about 10 exercises they like and never
deviates form them. The body adapts to this training regime in about four weeks.
Once this happens the stimulus is no longer creating a positive adaptation. You’re
just going through the motions.

Finally,
have funmake
fitness enjoyable find things you like to do. If a client of mine says to
me during their initial consultation they hate to bike, then putting them on
the bike for 40 minutes a day would not be conducive to having them stick to
their program. If you like being outdoors then go exercise outdoors. If you
like to walk then add walking to your program. If you’re competitive then put
small challenges or milestones to hit within your training. Examples would be
lifting 5 pounds more every workout, doing 10 pushups more every morning. Compete
with a friend or training partner challenge each other.

Above all be patient Rome was not built in a day. Changes will
happen in time.

It took however many years to get deconditioned
you won’t reverse it overnight.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Are you middle aged or older? Female or male, with a bit too much body fat? Are you a male who enjoys beer and would like to get rid of that gut? Are you a female that has been exercising hard but those stubborn areas are still there!? Then maybe DIM is for you.

DIM, short for Diindolymethane is natural supplement we prescribe and sell here at TopShape, that has produced amazing results when combined with our exercise programs. The simple reason is that most people today are not exercising regularly enough. Even if they are, sometimes they are frustrated because unbeknownst to them they are estrogen dominant. DIM is a breast and prostate cancer fighter that protects women and men by acting as an estrogen inhibitor.

Research shows that DIM supports healthy ratios of certain estrogens that play a role in cancer risk. DIM is also an aromatase inhibitor making it beneficial to men also. It blocks the conversion of testosterone to estrogen which is associated with an increase cancer risk and leads to fat storage.

“Estrogen dominance occurs when you have too much estrogen in the body or an imbalance between estrogen and other hormones. Estrogen dominance is a much greater problem than most people realize: It negatively affects men, women, and children, and it could be that one thing that is keeping you from losing weight or getting all that you could out or your workouts!” Charles Poliquin

I know what you're saying, Estrogen is a good thing! It is, at the right time when we need it. The problem is, when it's in over production mode because your body is in a state of hormone imbalance, then it can play havoc. Because of the high levels of environmental chemical estrogens (xenoestrogens), we are all exposed to everyday, estrogen dominance is playing a key role in making us hormonally imbalanced and fat.

In women, androgens are produced in the ovaries, adrenal
glands, and fat cells. Androgens are necessary for estrogen synthesis, and play
a key role in the prevention of bone loss. They also regulate body function
before, during and after menopause.

Women produce estrogen in 3 ways:
Estrone commonly referred to as (E1) ,usually a lesser estrogen produced by the adrenal glands. This estrogen becomes most abundant post menopause. The second, and most commonly thought of is, Estradiol (E2). This is produced by the ovaries and is usually meant when someone is talking about estrogen in women. The third is Estriol (E3), produced by the fat cells. This is the most plentiful of estrogens but is also the weakest. It is the interrelationship of these hormones and their dominance during different times in a woman's life which needs to be understood.

During different times in our lives, in both men and women the symbiotic relationship of estrogen and testosterone with the bodies other hormones can get radical. In relation to gaining lean muscle and burning fat, having this harmonious relation is key. When one pro-hormone system becomes imbalanced it's not long before it drags a couple of more systems with it. For example, when your fat cell estorgen (e3) becomes too dominant it interferes with the other estrogens such as adrenal estrogen (e1) which is closely regulated by ovary estrogen (e2) and stresses the adrenal glands which produce cortisol. This hormone becomes too unregulated and a high cortisol environment is introduced in the body. Access weight gain can result because over time you don't feel energized because insulin is the next hormone system disrupted. All the while you are trying to get into shape and become healthier, but what is aerobic and anaerobic exercise? Stress to the body...and your body can't regulate stress properly at the moment.

You may need help. DIM for women and men over 40 maybe that long awaited answer. I use DIM with many clients. With a balance of a good strength training program, good fats such as omega 3s and coconut oil, as well as enough vitamin D3 and protein intake, I have witnessed some amazing results.

Doctors at UC Berkeley gave a mere 108
mg (it should have been 200 mg) of DIM to postmenopausal women in a double blind
study. Their estrogen metabolism was improved dramatically in only 30 days. Now studies in men are ongoing but showing good results for prostate prevention. This only makes sense. Men today are showing far more estrogen dominance then their fathers or grandfathers did at their age. High estrogen and low test are becoming an epidemic, but this is another article.

Your takeaway from this article is to see a professional such as myself for a fitness evaluation, including a hormone test to see if DIM is for you. Also, women over 40 should be lifting weights with the goal to build muscle mass.